Last week, WeChat officially release its latest 5.1 version for iOS and Android in Malaysia, and I was invited to the launch event. WeChat 5.1 packs a few new features including social games that the user can challenge their friends.

As one of the leading social communication apps in China, WeChat is gaining tremendous growth in South-East Asia as well. In Malaysia, WeChat has gained 90% of smart phone penetration in recent years and was in the Top 10 Google Trends of 2013.

With this new release of WeChat 5.1, WeChat is aiming to enhance the users’ social life with the introduction of 4 new social games, a new camera app (StoryCam), and the ability to host up to 100 friends (previously max. 40) in a single chat room. All these new features are of course free of charge and are currently available in iOS and Android. Furthermore, we were informed that a new thrilling speed racing game, Wreckless Racer, will be available in the app very soon.

WeChat 5.1 can host up to 100 people in one single chat roomDownload all the free games under Discover > Games

Pencil Pilot – a simple scrolling shooter game.

Gunz Dash – Choose your favorite hero and embark on an exciting adventure in a fantasy universe. Speed through worlds and collect coins for a high score in this thrilling 2D animated, endless running game.

Craz3 Match – An easy-to-play but addictive game! Line up animals of the same kind for spectacular effects and move on to the next level.

2Day’s Match – A brand new casual puzzle game. Match two tiles of the same kind to clear them.

Besides these additive games, WeChat 5.1 also comes with a new camera app called StoryCam. Users can add text as description into the photo with this exclusive app. Festival watermarks, filters and real-time location based information are available in the app so the user can further personalize and share any moment.

WeChat is not stopping here, now the app has more new features that make connecting even more enjoyable such as :-

Edit ‘Favorite Messages’ – Save your favorite text and voice messages, photos and videos to ‘Favorite Messages’. It’s the first cloud-based storage service on mobile social communication apps so the user can view and share again anytime.

Register with Email Address – Users have more choices to connect with WeChat now. Just register with a valid email address to start chatting with friends.

Gmail Contact Integration – Link to Google account, find out who else is using WeChat and add them to the friends list.

Now I would say WeChat has become a more complete messaging app that not only lets you text and chat but also have more fun sharing pictures and playing games. If you haven’t got it installed in your smartphone, visit www.wechat.com for the more information.